Bankruptcy fraud in Monaco

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Three years after the closure of the “SARL JР Construction”, the two Danish managers, John Olsen and Peer Pedersen, have been sentenced by the Criminal Court to one year and six months imprisonment respectively for fraudulent bankruptcy. The court decision came a little over a month after the hearing on the case. This, despite the request for nullity of the procedure for linguistic incomprehension at the level of documents claimed by Yann Lajoux for his client Olsen. In 2001, the company moved to 20 Boulevard Princesse Charlotte, in Monte-Carlo, and hired many employees. A few years later, the SARL began to collapse. In 2013, several customers filed complaints.

The contracts were signed. Deposits paid. But the work was never done. On 6 February 2014, the payment ceased and an investigation was initiated. Obviously, the managers felt the trouble coming. They had fled quickly from the Principality.

“Over the course of investigations,” noted Judge Jérôme Fougeras-Lavergnole, “the police discovered the level of the misappropriated financial amounts. Amounts totalling € 800,000 for Olsen and € 250,000 for Pedersen were transferred from the SARL account to their personal assets. A trustee in bankruptcy was appointed. He noticed, among other things, that a dozen commercial vehicles were registered in Monaco. Where have they gone? One of the vans was found in the Var department with Polish workers on board! This would suggest that the two defendants continued their activities in France …”

For the Civil Parties, Jean-Pierre Licari denounced the fact that “most of the transfers were made before the liquidation. The money was siphoned off as the private wealth of the two managers, and without assets the company could no longer function. It peaked at 923,000 euros. The defendants must repay it…” Pierre Anne Noghes-Dumonceau, for his part, denounced “the implementation of a Ponzi scheme where the funds paid by customers are found in another company. Complainants must be compensated!”

At the hearing, the Senior Counsel Olivier Zamphiroff regretted the absence of the offenders. Then he rejected this system “where everything is calculated to take possession of the goods of a society”. He stated he intends to “moralize and sanction the life of business”. He denounced “those Danish managers who disappeared and one of whom does not appear at the bar because he fears aggression. Be serious! They have used money which does not belong to them to enrich themselves. These people should be sentenced to between five and ten years’ imprisonment.” Astonishingly, four years for Olsen and two years for Petersen were handed down, with reprieve! This did not prevent a vigorous reaction of Yann Lajoux. “Most of the operations cannot be considered part of the offense,” insisted the defence lawyer. “The ten vehicles found in Nice were never registered. The Polish workers used them for other construction sites. Reject all the applications of the civil party and pronounce an acquittal!” The court however proved harsher than the prosecution with prison sentences!